Sights and Sounds

NCAA Championship

This season, the Georgia Gym Dogs sold out five of six home meets and averaged 9,855 fans per outing. So where were all their supporters during the evening session of the NCAA Gymnastics Championships on Thursday night?

Stegeman Coliseum was half full, which would have to be considered a major disappointment. That total is even more disappointing when you consider that nearly 1,000 of those tickets were sold to the fans of the 11 other teams.

On Wednesday, the university said less than 1,000 tickets remained for the evening session. They may have been sold, but those people didn't use them, which was why the Gym Dogs performed before the quietest home crowd in several years.

Road warrior fans

Of the 11 teams that came to Athens it appeared the two that brought the most fans were the University of Alabama and the University of Utah.

There were several hundred Crimson Tide followers on hand for the afternoon session, which almost was expected considering the proximity from here to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and the Crimson Tide's familiarity with competing at Stegeman Coliseum.

But there was almost an equal number of Utah fans who made the trip from the Salt Lake City-area to attend the evening session.

The Crimson Tide and the Utes are two of the four schools (along with Georgia and UCLA) to have won NCAA gymnastics titles. Utah has won 10 team titles (the last in 1995), while Alabama has won three times (the last in 1996).

Illuminating session

It was the afternoon the lights wouldn't go back on in Georgia.

The start of Thursday's afternoon session was delayed at least 15 minutes when it took time for the overhead lights to regenerate after they were turned off for the fireworks display during pre-session introductions.

"You think they would have tried it out before hand to see if it worked,'' said one team official who was annoyed by the delay.

The fireworks display is used at all Georgia home meets, and it had not been a problem prior to Thursday. In interim, the public address system played several catchy tunes that gymnasts danced and clapped to while they waited.

Shortage of food

Prior to the start of the afternoon session, there was a long wait in concession lines at Stegeman Coliseum. One stand ran out of hot dogs and pizza 15 minutes before the start of the competition.